


tales from the forge and the throne

by Dizzydino



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Amaya now has a kid, Kinda, Multi, Nothing to bad, Siblings!, Soren gets adopted, found family fun, gets a smige dark in chapter 10, god cant help him, god help viren if she ever finds him, just a heads up, no wait, showing love via annoying the hell out of each over
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-28
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:35:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 12,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24429574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dizzydino/pseuds/Dizzydino
Summary: may contain found family and feels.
Relationships: Amaya/Janai (The Dragon Prince), Callum/Rayla (The Dragon Prince), Ethari/Runaan (The Dragon Prince)
Comments: 31
Kudos: 184
Collections: A slightly changed world





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter the first.

Amaya stared at the thick stack of paperwork that sat in front of her, a good couple of inches high and full of tick boxes and dotted lines and… GAH, how she hated paperwork with a passion. It was the boring and slow and very, very, very unexciting parts of her life that she could really do without, but with power (ie. Being a Military General, especially of her ranking) came responsibility. And a butt tone of paperwork. 

But at least this stack in particular was special, and needed her upmost attention. One wrong move, and she would have to start the paperwork all over again- which would drive her insane. If all the boxes and endless lists and signatures needed did not tip her over the edge first.  
She took another swig of tea, and squinted at yet another endless list of tick boxes and sign here spaces and mentally wished that she could get her hands on the person who decided that something as simple as name, age and profession needed to be broken down into a whole page of little boxes, and possibly feed them the whole form.  


After beating them with it. 

Sarai had been so much better at this paperwork malarkey. 

Amaya huffed, and reached for her dip pen, and her best black ink, along with her official stamp, and got to work.  
These adoption papers were not going to do themselves, after all. 

\- 

Soren stared at the paperwork that he had been presented with. the jumble of official words and phrases made his head spin, and all the fine print kept jumping about all over the place. A small part of him wished that his fath- Viren had pulled this stunt a year before, when he was still legally a minor, which would mean that he would not have to do part of the paperwork himself.  
But, on the other hand, if Viren had tried to do what he did the year before, then his head would of ended up on a pike before he could leave the capital.  


Or by the time he hit the border. One of the two.  
It would depend if Harrow or Amaya got hold of him first. 

Callum had come along after a while, and had taken pity on Soren and the paperwork hell that had been dropped on his head. Admittedly, it was a quarter of the size of the stack that Aunt Amaya was slogging her way through a couple of rooms over, but it was still enough to make most people flinch at the site of it.  
Callum was pretty sure that Soren’s head was going to explode if he stared at the stack for too much longer.  


So Callum made a deal with Soren. He would read out the important bits and decode the legal jargon, so all Soren had to do was tick the correct boxes and sign on the line when needed- it was a system that worked out well for the two of them, and the stack was completed in less than 20 minutes.  
After they fudged up the first attempt.  
There was a reason that legal documents like this were sent out in copies of two or more, the first was for making mistakes on.  
The second was the one that got sent off. 

\- 

“are you ok with this, I mean, me being your cousin. Legally.” Soren tapped his fingers together, not meeting Callum’s eyes.  


The two teens stood together on the battlements of fort Ferris, overlooking the lava stream. The fort at the breach was acting as a hub for the ongoing peace talks between the human kingdoms and Xadia, with General Amaya on one side, and The golden knight Janai on the other, plus a good amount of soldiers, keeping watch over the border.  
Prince Callum and Soren were guests at the moment. The still reforming pentarchy was not… thrilled at the thought of Callum staying in zadia, despite pleading from both him and a small army of elven scholars and mages who really wanted to teach and study the first human in recorded history with access to primal magic.  


Especially since Callum had proven scary good at picking up and using new spells.  


So the deal was that, for now, Callum would stay at the breach, as close to Zadia as possible, under the watchful eye of both battalions, until some sort of arrangements could be made. 

Callum gave the older blond a strange look.  
“Soren, be honest, if I had a problem with Aunt Amaya adopting you, I would not of helped you with your part of the paperwork involved in said adopting.”  
“Yeh… but..” Soren trailed off, staring off across the bubbling lava. “… um.. even after… all that.”  
He made a gesture out towards Zadia, and the chaos that had gone down just two weeks before. 

“Even after all that.” Callum poked Soren In the arm, grinning. “besides, someone needs to try to teach me how to sweep the leg.”  
Soren snorted in amusement. Like that was going to happen. Rayla was a better teacher then he was to Callum, where ever the spunky moonelf had vanished to. “besides” Callum’s voice was quiet, but sincere, “me and Ez have kinda considered you family for a while now, Viren and his bull droppings be damned.”  
That, at least, made Soren laugh out loud. 


	2. Chapter 2

Janai was staring into space, again.

When she was meant to be writing a report for her sister on the state of things at the border, but her brain was happily tapdancing its way down a very different path.   
A path paved with the image of a certain human general who looked criminally good in just her underclothing. Janai had momentarily forgotten about Amaya’s deafness on the way back to the border from lux aliua, and had barged in on Amaya getting dressed in her tent one fine morning.   


She had liked what she saw. Really liked what she saw, between spluttered apologies and ducking back out of the tent, dodging the mug that was thrown at her by the startled General. Janai had not been able to meet Amaya’s eyes for the rest of the day, out of shear embarrassment alone.   
But oh, sweet spring sunlight, she was in it deep. So very, very, deep.   


That woman had a very nice ass. and those muscles... Janai could drool over them for days. 

She was still twiddling her pen about when one of her lieutenants knocked on her office door to drop off some paperwork that had arrived for her.   
They took one look at the dreamy look on Janai’s face and stifled a laugh. They reached over Janai’s desk and booped the golden knight straight on the nose, snapping her out of her rather spicy mindset. 

“here is the shipping forms from the food delivery, all checked and signed. Your sister sent you some more boozy marshmallows.”   
Lieutenant Juba pretended not to notice the grumpy look that Janai shot them.   
“oh? Did she now?” Janai refrained from rolling here eyes. “dose she think I need cheering up?”   
“apparently. Or, alternately, she thinks you need to loosen up.” 

Juba was an old friend of Janai, having gone trough training with her and as a result, knew of all of the ways that Khessa had to attempt to ‘help’ along her sisters social life. The boozy marshmallows brought up memories of some interesting midsummer garden parties past.   


“soooooooooo,” Juba purred, leaning forward “who you thinking of.”   
“……………. I have no clue what you are talking about.” She huffed in responce, trying to act nonchalant  
“and im a moonstrider. Stop beating round the bush missy. I know that look.”   


Now Janai did her best to look mystified instead. 

“you had that very same look when you fell hard and fast for that cute earthblood lass, you know, the one who could bench press you if she wanted? What was her name again, hmmm?”   
Janai’s face flushed, and she berried her nose in the reports, using the pages to hide her face. she remembered her. Cornus, as she called herself, had been part of a circus that had visited the sunfire capital one dreamy summer. it had been a hot and steamy fling, but nothing more. 

“you know… the one with shiny black hair? And huggable muscles?”   
Janai refused to reply. very hugable   
“and battle scars. Let’s not forget those”   
Janai felt her ears heat up   
“….. admit it princess, you have a type.” 

Juba watched the curls of smoke emanating from inbetween Janai’s fingers, caused by the papers was holding starting to char.   


Janai was smitten.   
And she was doing her damn hardest to deny it.   


“I think she likes you too, you know.”   
“Juba. Please.” Janai ground out through gritted teeth. her friend was looking at her with the biggest grin in existence, and her eyes contained a gleam that belonged to an imp out of the pit. She was not going to be letting go of this any time soon.   
With a long suffering sigh, Janai set the papers back down on the desk, scorch marks and all, and gave Juba a long suffering look.   
“fine. I may have a tiny, very tiny crush on General Amaya. Happy now?”   
Juba’s face lit up like the moring sun, and she plopped down into the chair across the desk from Janai.   


They were still grinning.   


“nope~ I want. All the details. liiiiike” they paused, thinking “did she really tell you to shove your sword up your ass?”   
Janai let her head thump into her desk.


	3. 3

The summer had barely begun, and in the minds of two teenage boys, it was already way. Too. hot. 

The problem with fort Ferris was that, yes, it was in a prime place to watch over the borderland breach, but it was unfortunately sandwiched between a mountain range to the west, and a honking great river of lava to the east.   
The result was a heat trap of sorts, with meant that the temperature inside the fort was already hitting ‘summer heatwave’ levels, in June.   
And there was no escaping it, unless you were willing to move into the multitude of storerooms and dungeons under the keep. 

And to top it off, the spells in the stonework, as old as the fort its self, meant to keep the interior cool in summer, were not going to kick in for another couple of weeks. At least. 

Callum was starting to wonder if this sudden spike in temperature could, in any way be attributed to the sunfire elves, as an excuse for Janai to see Aunt Amaya in her sleeveless work out top more often.   
Janai going red and spluttering at the sight of Amaya in said work out top and shorts was a good thing right?   


\- 

“Callum.”   
“yes Soren?”   
“I hate this.”   
Callum shot his newly adopted cousin a cranky look from his bed across the room, and flopped back with a sigh.   


The two of them had been kept awake half the night already due to the temperature alone, and it was starting to show.  


Soren was tired and cranky. Callum was tired and cranky. And opening the small windows in the room was not helping things in any way shape or form.   


Soren rolled over with a groan, and sat up.   
Then his face lit up as a brilliant idea flashed into his mind.   
“heeeey, Callum?”   
“yes Soren?” Callum tried to masked some of the grumpiness in his tone.   
“Do you think that that iceberg spell of yours might help?”   
“ice berg spell?” the grumpiness in Callum’s voice turned to confusion as he spoke, racking his tired mind for the spell that Soren was referring to- water based stuff was still out of his reach magic wise, sooooo.. 

“yeh, you know the one you used to trap that bully of a corporal’s feet in ice?”   
“oh. OHHHHH” Callum was up like a flash, “yeh, that’s a good idea! A very good idea! Soren, you genus.”   
Callum looked at the space between the two open windows. The breeze coming from the two of them was not much, but with some ice there to drop the air temperature a little… oh yes, this would work. then they could both get some sodding sleep. 

“Soren, could you move the chifforobe? Its in the way”   
One moved item of furniture, and a quick bit of spell work later and the wall between the windows was covered in a thick layer of ice spikes, sparkling in the candle light in all there crystalline glory. The instantaneous drop in temperature was a complete and utter relief.   
The two of them admired there work for a long moment, shook hands at a job well done and both very promptly went back to bed.   


\- 

Amaya made her way through the oven she called the barracks with a scowl on her face. A certain pair of someones had failed to turn up to breakfast this morning, and were both now tardy for the morning exercises that she had set up for them.   


Her nephew in particular could use with some training, for his own sake. 

It was cold, actual Goosebumps causing cold in the hallway outside the boys bedroom door. The sensation washed over her like a cooling bucket of water, and as she pushed the door open, she found out why.  
It looked like someone had plonked a shimmery chunk of the frozen sea between the tower windows, which was cooling the incoming air to the room. It was.. pleasant.   
But, on the other hand, the growing lake that was forming on the floor, emanating out from the jagged chunk of ice, would be an issue. The rug was drenched, and Soren’s boots were threatening to be cast adrift on the indoor sea. 

Speaking on Soren…. 

He was flat on his back, mouth open, completely out of it. Callum was very much in the same way, curled up on his side, ribs rising and falling in the steady pace of someone was in a deep, comfortable slumber. 

Well. That would explain a couple of things. Amaya shook her head. She was going to ignore the moonelf that was in the middle of trying to make herself invisible in one of the windowsill, clearly in the process of sneaking into a heavily armed fort via her boyfriend’s bedroom window.   
And giving her one hell of a ‘woops, you caught me’ grin.   
Nope. She was going to go and get a pair of mops, and some buckets, so the two boys could clean up the mess they made.   
Once they woke up. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i should add that this fic is in the same AU as chained heat, which is why Queen sunnybutt is still alive and kicking.

“for the love of the sun, we are just friends! Friends! Nothing more!” 

Janai glared at the radiant epitome of smugness, gilded in gold, that was sitting leisurely, draped across her chair, at her desk, in her office, at the breach.   
Why one of the brave, loyal, handpicked troops that made up her platoon had not given her some sort of waring that her lovely pest of a sister had decided to drop in for a visit whilst she was out on patrol, was beyond her, but some warning to the interrogation that she was walking into would have been very nice.   
But no. instead, she had walked in to her office, fresh from a brisk walk to the other fort to drop off some paperwork, definitely not to see if the general was out early in her work out gear or not, she had come face to face with Khessa merrily poking through some of the personal paperwork that had been sitting on her desk.   


And then with the questions. 

They had started innocently enough, how have you been? What’s going on? any news from across the border ect, ect. Typical things that always came up when they were together   
But then thing had taken a sharp left turn and dove straight down the ‘sister, please no’ path.   
How is your pet adapting to being reintroduced to the wilds? you are keeping in contact with her, yes? Have you admitted how you feel about her? sister please, do you think that we don’t notice?   
Janai grumbled. Khessa just laughed at her embarrassment, swivelled around in the chair and lent over Janai’s own desk to give her a mirth filled grin. 

“please sister, your love for that pain of a human, who is growing on a lot of people back home, may I add, is a clear as the midday sun. Right, Suri dear?”   
Janai shot a extra strong glower over to the mage who was sitting in the corner of the room, a cup of tea sitting neatly in their hands. Said cup was from the china set that Janai kept in her room. Next to the drafts of courting poetry that she had been attempting.   


Joy. 

“she likes you too, you know.” Suri chimed in, voice soft. They was still recovering from what that startouched menace had put them through, but they was looking better. The greyed pallor had finally vanished from their skin.   
It was good to see.   
But it also meant that they was back to their usual self, and that meant being Khessa’s partner in crime.   
And in the bedchamber, which brought a little nugget of information back to Janai’s mind, from a conversation that she had had with her sister before she took up the patrol of the border, before any of this went down.   
This was going to be fun.   
A very, very sweet smile formed on Janai’s lips, and she tented her fingers. She turned back to khessa. 

“so sister. How’s the heir making going.” 

Suri chocked on his tea. And Khessa’s smile dropped like a lead weight.   
Khessa’s face had morphed into a picture of open mouth shock. Then she started spluttering worse than Janai had when she first walked in the room.   


“JANAI- what the…you.…WHY.”   
“what?” Janai chirped, sounding as innocent as possible “you were poking about my supposed love life.”   
Khessa got the same look of grumpy disapproval on her face that she did when the muggy spring weather rolled in each year, but this time was tinted with a little bit of embarrassment.   
“….honestly sister, you told me that the two of you were trying.” 

Suri made a slightly strangled sound from behind her, Khessa’s eyes darted to them, then back to Janai. She looked slightly panicked for some reason.   
Janai narrowed her eyes, peering suspiciously at her sisters midriff.   


“And is it just me, or are you juuuuust a little more chunky around the middle? Hmmmm?”   
Khessa’s face promptly turned red. 

Suri looked between the two of them from their perch by the door. They could see the way that Janai was starting to push Khessa’s buttons. They had know the sisters for a very long time, and once the button pushing started between the two of them, it would not be stopping any time soon. Or it would stop at the first explosion.   
They did not want to be within the blast radius once that happened. Khessa had a very good throwing arm, and Janai was an expert in setting things on fire.   


And look at that, they were out of tea. 

Nabbing the teapot, They slunk out of the room as Janai and Khessa’s voices started to rise behind them. They were half way down the hallway before sound of something being knocked over echoed out, probably the chair that Khessa had been sitting in, come to think of it.   
They chuckled. Nice to know that some things were back to a sort of normal. 


	5. letters

Letters.

Everyone loves receiving letters. Well, apart from when said letter contained bad news, but that was beside the point. 

It was a part of daily life at fort Ferris. The mail would be delivered, by messenger bird or via the supply wagons, handed over to the post master, who then checked and sorted the incoming mail, before popping them into the correct pigeon holes for delivery (normally at breakfast, or tea, depending on the shift you were on).  
Incoming parcels had the same treatment.  
So, understandably, it was pretty unusual to have a letter dumped in your lap, at breakfast, by a brilliantly plumed bird of zadain origin. 

Callum blinked at the litter in surprise, still half asleep, then at the gold and pinkish gold song bird that will trilling happily on the light fixture above his head, then back down at the letter. The parchment it was made from was thick, smooth and almost unnaturally white, sealed with a red/gold wax seal, which if his half dead mind was not deserving him, had one of those twin tailed lion things that a certain sunelf had as a mount.  
He showed it to Rayla, who was in the middle of demolishing a stack of pancakes (with extra moonberry syrup) 

“gee, I wonder who this is from” he muttered as the rest of the dining hall retuned to its usual level of chatter.  
She rolled her eyes at him as he popped the seal and unrolled the letter to read it. 

_Prince Callum,_ it started  
_I wish to extend an invite to you and your family to a summer solstice celebration that we are holding here at fort Ignis.  
There will be food and drink, plus music.  
(Tell the moonelf to behave, and she is very welcome to attend as well.)  
Kind regards,  
Golden knight Janai.  
Ps are there any courting rituals that are observed in Katolis? _

Callum blinked at the letter’s contents, and re read it again. Rayla, who was reading it over his shoulder, let out a small snort.  
“that’s a funny way of asking your aunt out.” She smirked as Callum swatted at her horns to get her to go away.  
“I mean, come on, why would she be asking about the courting stuff overwise. Its no big secret that she has the hots for Amaya.”  
Callum did not amuse her with an answer, but got up to tell his aunt about the invite anyway. 

\- 

_Dear golden knight Janai  
My family and I are delight to take you up on your invite, and would like to ask if we could bring along some food and drink from our side to the party.  
Rayla promises to be on her best behaviour.  
Thank you again  
Prince Callum  
PS, in regards to your question, not really. But tell her you like her. it’s a good way to start.  
PPS, what kind of bird are you using as a messenger? It’s very sweet and my aunt likes it.  
_

__

__-_ _

__

__Callum sent his reply back across the breach attached to the little bird, and watched it flutter off, feathers glinting in the morning light.  
Aunt Amaya had happily accepted the invite, saying that a good party would do them all wonders, and then went back to organising the bash on there side of the border, and trying to work out how to split time between the two parties.  
It would not do for the general not to attend the party at her own fort, after all.  
_ _

__

__-_ _

__

___Prince Callum,  
The bird is a golden harp bird, which I obtained from my sister’s personal postal service.  
I doubt she has noticed yet.  
Amaya can keep it.  
Golden knight Janai.  
PS on account of the offer of food, yes please. Especially those pickled pepper things your that was served at the last meeting. they are very good, and its not just me who likes them.  
PPS I keep getting letters from one of the mage’s collages in Lux.A, they want to ‘Talk’ with you.  
_ _ _

__

__-_ _

__

__Callum rolled his eyes at the second postscript.  
There was a stack of letters and such sitting on his desk, and an even bigger stack sitting on his aunt’s desk of requests to ‘talk’ with him, addressed from everything from the top universities and mage’s academies in zadia, to curators of private collections and schools. Some where very open about wanting to try to work out how he had forged his connection to the sky arcanum, others were… slightly more vague about what they had in mind.  
The sort of vagueness that made his skin crawl.  
_ _

__

__-_ _

__

___Golden knight Janai  
Aunt Amaya has named the bird Queenie.  
She says hi, by the way. Do they mean talk as in ‘talk’ talk, or talk as in ‘poke me with scientific thingies to try to find out how my magic works’ talk. I’m fine with the first, want nothing with the second. Not again.  
Did you get the memo about meeting up to work out the whole joint party thing? We’ve been having some sort of problem with the mail room.  
Prince Callum.  
Quick edit- we caught the problem. _ _ _

__

__-_ _

__

__Janai’s face when they marched the trouble maker back over the breach a day later was a picture.  
Nyx looked sheepish, at least, having been reemed out by Amaya when she was caught ransacking the fort’s mail room, (looking for trinkets and so forth) and by the look of it, she was going to be yelled at by Janai too for crossing the border without permission.  
Callum was handed the letters from the Collage for him to go over at his own pace, and to make his own decision on whether he wanted to meet with the professors behind them.  
In with he stack he was handed, was a letter that was definitely not for him. _ _

__

__-_ _

__

____To my beloved, squishy little sister_  
Would you have any idea where our beloved Suri has vanished to?  
I need to talk to them about something rather important, and no one can find him anywhere.  
And, before you ask, no, I am not mad at them. Anymore. signed Khessa._


	6. 5.5 wakin' up

5.5 mini

Suri woke by the side of a dusty road. 

It was noon, if the sun in the sky was anything to go by, and his entire body ached like he had been run over by a cart.   
And whatever was drawing that cart.  
Repeatedly.  


He rolled onto his side and tried to work out where they was, and more importantly, how they had gotten here. The last clear memory that they had was walking though the inner garden of there personal quarters, trying to work out what they had done to tick Khessa off and now they were… somewhere.  
The last time they had felt this bad was after… after the sunforge had fallen and that _dang bug and not being in control anymore and .. and.._   
The memory of a stinging sensation on there thigh just before they blacked out, and how, in hind sight, similar it was to the bug bite that day made their blood run cold. Please, sol, please not again. Suri sat up and looked around, at the sparse grasslands surrounding them, at the thick volcanic ash filled soil, and the craggy rocks. If they had to guess, they were close to the border. As they continued to look around, they spotted something laying in the dust next to where they had been laying. 

It looked to be a pouch of some sorts, a coin purse, perhaps? 

It was not theirs. That was clear. Most likely, it was dropped by one of Janai’s troops as they passed though. so, since they were, by the looks of it, close to the breach, they could just turn it in and arrange for transport back home. And a medical check-up. Yes, that would be good. 

Suri scooped the coin pouch up off the floor, pulling a face at how weighty it was, and headed west along the path. 

\- 

In the brush, a small caterpillar watched them go, before dissolving into starlight. It’s mission was accomplished, and its creator was pleased, even if his dear, dear friend was going to give him a earful once the disappearance was noticed.   
No one deserved to be imprisoned like that, after all. 


	7. Chapter 7

6

Callum squirmed against his aunt’s vice like grip. 

He dragged his feet, protested the best he could his free hand, and did everything in his power to try to avoid the fate that was awaiting him at their destination, but alas, all his desperate flailing as in vain.  
She was towing him along behind her, as easy as a child with a wheeled tug along toy, not letting him get even an inch of leeway. 

Soren sulked along behind the two of them, trying to look as small as possible, with a very, very unhappy Rayla slung over his shoulder, yelling elven profanities whist raining blows down on his back, fists bouncing off of his armoured chest plate. 

A message from a flustered sounding Opeil had arrived that morning with some disturbing news, and was insisting that all members of the katolen royal family, adopted or otherwise, get their behinds to the capital yesterday. Amaya was insistent that they all had a medical check-up beforehand, and that meant all of them.  
Soren and Callum had not had one since winter, after all, and Rayla, who was being very vocal about her displeasure, medical history was mostly a mystery. (A letter needed to be sent to Ethari to address this issue).  


None of them were happy, but there was no getting out of it. 

\- 

Callum went first, trying not to squirm too bad as the fort physician gave him a firm once over, checking his temperature, blood pressure and checking making a note of every little thing. They tutted over the lingering burns on the fine skin of Callum’s neck, a lasting reminder of the battle of the storm spire, and gave him a round of booster shots that he was due.  
Thankfully, there was nothing out of the ordinary, but he had grown a little bit since winter, and had lost some of the puppy fat that he had, due to the grand adventure he had been on. Nothing to write home about. 

Next came Soren. Soren… made the physician look worried. 

Callum hissed in symphony at the sight of the jagged impact scar that Soren was sporting between his shoulder blades, from the downed dragon incident. The injury that had served his spine. That his sister had fixed via dark magic.  
But, barring any lingering issues from his one sided fight with a very angry dragon, and strict orders not to do that again, he was doing ok. 

He had more scars on his body, little nicks that had been taken out of his skin due to his job and the training that went with it.  
He acted a little shy, almost guilty about some of them. the small chunk that had been taken out of his cheek by his own fathers’ staff was barely noticeable against his pail skin, but he still looked so ashamed when it was noticed.  
Callum made a mental note to bring it up with him at some point 

Another set of shots for him later and the boys were good to go. 

Then came Rayla. 

Callum has been told by a number of elven scholars and medics over the last couple of months that moonshadow elves in general, especially ones trained as assassins, were problematic patients.  
Stubborn, wiggly, problematic patients.  
And that was when they were being well behaved and relatively cooperative 

Rayla, tragically, was in no mood to be prodded and poked, even if it was for her own good, and so had spent the time that the boys were being seen too trying to get as far away from the medical centre as possible. 

Her efforts were rather hampered by the fact that Amaya had decided to keep one hand firmly clamped on the back of her shirt, and had her fixed with a very stern ‘ don’t you dare’ look for the entire time they were waiting.  
So she was sitting there, as highly strung as a long bow, waiting for the first moment possible to make her escape from this situation, until the door to the examination room popped open, disgorging the boys into the waiting aria, rubbing their arms.  
Then Rayla was hauled up by the scruff of her neck and frog marched into the room for her turn. 

\- 

Rayla scrambled away from the medic and packed herself into one of the corners.   
They gave her a very flat look.  
“come on now, don’t be like that.”  
Yeh, right. Rayla did not have any intentions of letting this strange human poke her about, for her own good or not. 

Nope.  
Nada.  
No no no. 

She eyed up the ceiling beam above her a kind of escape route, trying to work out if she could use it to reach the little window near the ceiling. And if she would fit though said window. Amaya twigged quite quickly to what she was most likely going to try to do and, eyes rolling, scooped her up and plonked her on the examination bed before she could make a move. Rayla sat and pouted, watching the medic grab a couple of things, a stethoscope and something else, and a blank form out of a draw. 

And a needle.  
And a little bottle of stuff that was probably going in the needle.  
Hell. No.  


She watched and waited until Amaya was momently distracted by the medic asking her something, alluding to the generals own medical check-up, and made a mad dash for the door.  
She did not get far. 

\- 

A loud crash sounded form inside the examination room. 

Callum and Soren looked at each over with amusement at the sound of Rayla protesting, followed by the very audible sound of the profanity laden protests that Rayla had been spewing on her way over starting anew, now with the added bonus of detailing the injustice of having her temperature taken.  
Rayla.. did have oh so slightly ticklish ears, which was probably not helping things.  


All this was interspersed with the poor physician imploring Rayla to sit still for a couple of minutes and repeatedly asking her to stop trying to kick them. 

“so” Soren muttered into Callum’s ear “how long until Rayla gets a butt full of sleepy meds?”  
A short shout of pain and more scrabbling sounded out from the other side of the door.  
“any second now.” Callum deadpanned, going back to reading one of the books that he had found. 

\- 

Janai Walked Suri through the corridors of the human run fort, heading for where she knew the medical bay way. 

The problem with her side of the breach, well one of many problems, was that they were yet to get any sort of permanent medical staff. And of course, Suri had to turn up, dehydrated and confused, out of the blue with a suspicious bite/puncture wound on his thigh, and a mystery coin purse that, upon asking around, belonged none of her soldiers.  
So, across the breach they went.  
The gate guard had pointed them to the infirmary and had given them a very polite warning about the less that happy moon elf that was last been seen being dragged the same way. 

The soldiers had apparently been picking up some new words from the never ending tirade that the girl had been coming out with. 

That sounded promising. 

Rounding the corner, they walked into the waiting room to the amusing site of both Soren and Callum sitting together on one of the benches, reading, not paying any attention to the world at large, with a passed out Rayla sprawled out across their laps, completely and utterly dead to the world.  
And snoring lightly.  


The confused sound Janai made at the sight caught Callum’s attention. He looked between her and Rayla, who was now drooling on his trousers a couple of times before he came out with, In a blunt but sheepish tone:  
“doc tried to give her a check-up. She didn’t like that, so she bit doc. Doc didn’t like that, so she’s now taking a bit of a nap.”  
He paused for a moment, thinking.  
“but on the bright side, we now know she’s compliantly healthy and we all know some new words.” 

Janai just sighed and raised her eyes to the ceiling as Suri let out a small snort of amusement. thankfully, Amaya emerged from the doorway across the room at that moment, and Janai immediately walked over to talk to her about boring the poor, put upon medic they had on duty for a bit.  
getting to the bottom of what had happened to Suri was very important, and she wanted to get them back to her sister before her sister decided to invite herself back to the border for another 'visit'. 


	8. on the road

The only sounds on the road aside from the clip clop of horses hooves and the clink- jingle of tack and armour was the endless chirping of cicadas. 

The little bugs were a symbol and herald of summer in Katolis and Duran. The sounds of the first cicadas were a sores of celebration for many, and to catch one (live and unharmed) was meant to bring good luck to the captor.  
As Soren tried to spy one of the noisy little bugs in the bushes by the road, he had to admit that his little mismatched family could really use some luck right now. 

Suri, the high mage of the sunfire elves, had handed over the coin purse they had found besides themselves when they came around, asking if it belonged to anyone in the fort. It had taken no time at all for word to get around, but word soon got back that it belonged to no one in the fort.  
So, at a loss, the contents had been dumped out onto a table, revealing a gross of heavy golden coins, with no discernible markings from any royal mint to be seen on their surface, only a series of runes around the edges, were the motto from the kingdom they were minted in was meant to be.  
And they were not zadian in origin. 

They were all stumped. 

That was until Callum, being the curious person he was, took the opportunity of the adults (and Soren, and recently arrived Gren) discussing what to do with said coins, picked one up to give try to have good look at the runes when he suddenly shrieked, dropping the coin back onto the table with a clatter.  
Through stuttering words and whimpers, he tried to explain what had spooked him so bad, in sign and words, but in the end, with shaking hands, he simply held up the coin and give it a sharp tap. The sounds of surprise and outrage that sounded out as the moving face of a moonshadow elf materialised on the surface of the coin, and started banging of the surface with a look of sheer desperation. 

Gren and Soren both went pale.  
Then Rayla had started howling in sorrow. 

If Runaan could hear her, or see her, he gave no sign as he continued to pound on the golden wall of his prison, silently crying out. 

\- 

Rayla had been very, unnervingly quite ever since.  
It was weirded them all out. It was not her normal ‘I’m trying to be a mysterious moon elf’ antics, but a worrying, sullen silence, punctuated only by soft sniffles. . She had not let go of the coin pouch all day.   
not that anyone could blame her. 

Suri and Janai were both needed back at Lux A, one being the responsible adult who had to deliver the other back to poor defenceless queen Khessa in one piece, so they were going to take the chance to scour both the university and palace libraries to see if they could track down any way to free the trapped elves, promising to drop a letter addressed to Ethari of silvergrove in at the first post office they came to.  
He needed to know, and Rayla was in no state to inform him herself.  
And to top it off, no one was looking forward to going through the former Lord Viren’s workshop/dungeon/ evil lair once they got where they were going.  
the mood on the road that day was sullen, to say the least. 

\- 

Rayla had gone straight to bed the moment they made camp that evening. Traveling the kings’ roads made getting from the border to anywhere in Katolis a doddle, which had made her ask herself why they never used them before. 

Then they had passed the first couple of guard towers. And a mounted patrol.  
She sort of guessed why after that. 

She hugged the coin pouch containing 3/4ths of her family and the rest of her (former) team closer to her chest. Curse that damned dark mage, curse him in what ever ditch he was rotting in. why the hell would he do this? Soren had no explanation for her. Viren (and by extension, Claudia) never told him much about the magic they practiced, and the last he had seen of most of them was just after the attack on Katolis castle.   
He sounded so remorseful. She did not have it in her to be angry with him over anything that happened, even after he admitted that he had helped to take Runaan into custody, braid first. 

Sitting up on her bedspread, she gently plucked one of coins from the pouch, holding it up so she could see the face on it.  
It was Ram.   
By the looks of it, he was deeply asleep, face soft and relaxed, if a bit mushed up against the surface of the coin. His ear twitched every now and then.  
Rayla wondered if he was dreaming of the soft twilight of the slivergrove, and of the fruit tarts that he adored. Or of the herb garden his mother kept. Or of the little sister who adored him so, so much. Or if he was even aware of time passing. Or.. 

The sound of one of those persistent chirping bugs that were absolutely everywhere snapped her out of her thoughts. A quick scan of her tent located the bug on the inside of the door flap, its mottled green shell shimmering like a gem against the dull fabric of the tent. 

How did that get there? 

Just then, the tent flap shifted, and a second shimmering bug was posted through the gap, flying up to join the first, causing the constant chirping to become even louder. Then a 3ed appeared, then a forth. By the fifth bug she yanked open the tent flap to confront the mystery bug poster. 

Soren and callum both had the audacity look rather surprised. 

They both had multiple bugs in their possession, and sheepish grins. She narrowed her eyes dangerously at them.   
“…we thought you were asleep?” Soren squeaked. 

\- 

Gren was sitting next to the fire, blanching some noodles from his pack to make himself a nice little noodle bowl for dinner, when a pair of very high pitch squeals erupted from the direction of the tents, making more than one person jump. 

Soren and Callum, who had slunk off couple of minutes ago to do something, armed with a net and some first rate plotting, came blasting though the heart of the camp, yelling something about murder, with Rayla in hot pursuit, branding what looked to be a lantern in one hand and a franticly chirping cicada in the other. Of the two of them Callum was faster, and was very much in the prosses of leaving Soren in the dust as he raced away from the impending doom, scarf flying in the wind. 

Amaya looked up from her book with a look of faint amusement as the boys made a dash for the river, the only safe place from the yelling ball rage right behind them.  
-Well- Amaya remarked once they had cleared the camp and the dust had settled -At least she not gloomy anymore.- 


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *offers you a chapter*

The sun was low in the sky, and Janai was no were near finished with the frankly huge stack of books that was sitting on the desk in front of her. and that was just her round of books. There was an equally as big books in front of a tired looking Suri and another (slightly smaller) stack in front of Kazi, mostly in the languages that the two other elves couldn’t read.  
Not that the books they could read was providing any sort of answer to the questions they had. 

“why, why is there nothing in any of these?” Janai’s huffed angrily, slamming the thick leather clad book closed.  
“because Dark magic is not something that any elves want to know about in great detail?” Suri guessed out loud, rubbing their forehead in annoyance. “and no one wanted to give anyone any brilliant, possibly murderous ideas.”  
Janai rolled her eyes at them, and picked up the next big, heavy text book in the pile, flicking it open to the slightly faded bookplate, and its rather… graphic… depiction of a dark mage attacking a pair of terrified looking elves. 

The spontaneous research session had been going on all day, with very little to show for there efforts, and even Kazi, who was kind of used to and kind of enjoyed spending long days entrenched in books and studying said books, was flagging.  
All of the books they had found that held reference to dark magic, only mentioned its effects, and how to spot a dark mage mixed in with other ‘safer’ humans, and how to treat physical symptoms dark magic when used on an elven victim. But all that was for a live elf with an actual body and pulse, there was nothing about freeing said elves from inanimate objects. Nothing at all. And then there was that one book full of… questionable cooking recipes, that made a very clear point to say that dark magic made affected meat highly unpalatable, unless heavily spiced. 

That book had gone back on the shelf very, very quickly, with mutters of needing to bleach all knowledge of what had been read from their minds. 

At some point, Khessa had joined the impromptu study session, minus her usual crown and armour, draping herself of to a reclining Suri in a very flirty way, making the tips of Suri’s ears flush when she gave him a sweet hello kiss on the cheek. And then she had almost immediately started to inject her own wry comments into the discussion.  
It was a much needed distraction from the morbid reading that they had been doing. 

“its such a shame that that horrid little man is not around anymore to question” Khessa observed, resting her head on Suri’s shoulder to read the grim volume in their hands. “it would have been so much easier. And less mind scaring.”  
“oh, yes. Like having him in this city went so well last time, sister. Remember?” Janai snarked, adding another book to her ‘done’ pile. “the collar and chain clashed terribly with your outfit.”  
“Hush you.”  
“make me.” 

Suri rolled their eyes at the two of them. Kazi promptly decided that the book in front of them was a more interesting that what was going on across the room. 

Khessa pulled a pouty face in response to the jab, but true to form, soon found some return ammunition.  
“like your pet was any more cooperative. Tell me, what did tell you to do with your sword again, hmmmmmmm?” 

Janai stuck her tongue out at her sister, and the smug look on her sister’s face, not lowering herself to respond. At least Amaya did not try to destroy the city, or take over Zadia with the aid of a whole fricking mutated army.  
And was still alive.  
And cuddly. So very, very _cuddly _.  
Not that anyone else needed to know that. __

__

__“Besides~ “ Khessa mused, tilting her head at one of the illustrations in the book she had plucked off Suri’s ‘already read’ pile. “why do you need some of these, I thought you already knew something about human anatomy after that little incident involving your pet and a tent.”  
From their little corner of the room, Kazi made a very strange, strangled noise as Janai blushed and sputtered, and Suri opted to pretend that they did not just hear that. _ _

__

__-_ _

__

__They finally gave up after another hour._ _

__

__It was dark out now, with night birds singing sweetly in the garden. Janai stiffly stumbled her way from to the library to the small, privet dining room attached to the royal apartments, legs protesting from the long sit down. Kazi had bid them all a pleasant evening, before heading back to their freshly renovated apartment for the night, making reference to some very soft pillows waiting for them.  
And some worried parents who were still apprehensive about there adult and independent child being out after dark. (a fear not completely unfounded, they were still rooting out some of the last taints of dark magic from the city, and some of those taints had sharp teeth) _ _

__

__Khessa had put a request for a light but delicious dinner this evening, easy on the spices, which in Janai’s mind, was slightly suspicious.  
_Ohhhh _so slightly.  
One thing the two sisters had in common was that they both loved the amazing variety of spicy foods that the sunfire nation had to offer, the hotter the better. Suns light, the had even gotten into a pepper eating contest in their younger years (which their dearest brother Ori had won by virtue of not taking part). so the lack of spice was a little bit of a red flag.  
A red flag that Janai was not going to pick at just yet.  
After all, they had spent some time reading about some less then savoury texts involving things that would put anyone of their food. ___ _

___ _

___Anyone._ _ _

___ _

___But still….._ _ _

___ _

___“are you ok, Khessa?” Janai asked, mouth full of delicious peach and soft cheese filled couscous, “you don’t normally play with your food like that.”  
“I am fine.” Khessa huffed, stuffing a spoonful of food into her mouth to prove it. “just feeling a little under the weather.”  
_ _ _

___ _

___Janai gave her sister a very flat look._ _ _

___ _

___“I. am. Fine.” Khessa hissed, viciously spearing a fork full of salad with a bit more force then was needed._ _ _

___ _

___The dining room doors swung open before Janai could enquire about other little things, like the mood swings for example, allowing a young page to enter the dinging room, bearing a scroll sealed with a wax seal that looked suspiciously like Amaya’s iconic shield._ _ _

___ _

___“a message for you, golden knight.” They announced in a youthful voice, bowing. “from Katolis.”_ _ _

___ _

___Janai politely took the scroll, thanking and dismissing the young page before turning her attention to the litter at hand.  
The paper looked like it was from prince callum’s sketch book, complete with charcoal smudges , and the blue seal had what looked like red wax smeared in some places, like wax stick had been melted in a container what had not been properly cleaned of the wax that had been used before.  
The letter had been written and sealed in a hurry. _ _ _

___ _

___Now highly curious, Janai popped the wax seal, and proceeded to scan through Amaya’s slightly messy handwriting to find out its contents, only to almost drop the letter in surprise._ _ _

___ _

___“uh, sister dear?” Janai ground out, eyes never leaving the small bombshell that was described in slightly sweary detail on the page in he hand. “how are you up for a little… diplomatic visit to Katolis?”  
_ _ _

___ _

___Khessa shot Janai a weird look, pretending that she had not gone back to poking at her food.  
“….. why? You just got back.” _ _ _

___ _

___Janai passed the letter over to Khessa as a form of explanation, already planning the best routs to get to Katolis in the shortest amount of time, and what was going to be needed to prepare for… well, anything._ _ _

___ _

___Of all the things to be found in that dark mage’s lair, that…. That was not something any of them would of exspected._ _ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm baaaack, finally.  
> sorta.  
> next chapter is coming along a bit better, so should be up soon!


	10. darkness desends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a small warning, this chapter is a wee bit darker then normal, because dark mages and there lairs are not filled with sunshine and rainbows

Getting down to the hell hole, as the guards had dubbed it, was the least eventful part of the day. 

Things had not started brilliantly that morning, with Rayla receiving a very unpleasant letter from the moonshadow council at breakfast, informing her that, tragically, that she would have to jump though yet more hoops before they would even think of starting an appeal to her ghosting.  
And then some of the Katolis council had made some very mean remarks about Soren, which had almost lead to a brawl in the throne room when a couple of the crown guard came to Soren’s defence. Which meant that the whole morning was delayed until the dust settled and Aunt Amaya had walloped the offending heads together, telling them in very blunt tones to leave her kid alone.  


Or else. 

And all that was before the complaint about the (sizeable) dukedom that was being transferred to Callum, well, being transferred to Callum.  
That was a whole ‘nother mess that had delayed lunch by a good hour.  
Descending into the underbelly of the dungeons, on rout to the former lord viren’s workshop was almost a relief, both from the court at large and the summer heat. 

Even in the heat of midsummer, the catacombs under the castle were cool, almost icy in some places. The glowing blue crystals that lined the walls cast the tunnels In the same eerie light as the afternoon the boys had met Rayla, and had kicked off the whole chain of events that had led them back down here, into the bowls of the plateau the castle above had been built on. 

Ezren had managed to slip away from his responsibilities for the day to help them gain entry, neatly tapping in the rock and stone combo needed to open the staircase down into the lab it’s self, before being summoned back to king duties, leaving Rayla, Callum, Soren, Gren and Amaya to start the search for answers. 

\- 

They started with the most obvious place, which was the shelves of books tucked away above racks of jars with things in them, which were quickly earmarked for donation to the under construction natural history museum, along with the multiple taxidermy beasties.  
The books ranged in subjects form a slightly muddy guide plant and fungi identification (and practical uses for them once identified), which was innocent enough, to the book bound in suspicious leather, which detailed in painful detail how to reduce an elf down to easily useable dark magic components.  
Said books were sitting next to each other on the shelf.  
Rayla, wisely, refused to touch the second book. 

Over the course of a couple of hours, more books were pulled of shelves and thumbed through to determine what was in them, and if they held any solution to the problem at hand. the resounding conclusion that was drawn up was that viren could not draw for the life of him, and despite being very precise with his note taking, had not left any clues to how to undo the coining spell.  
Not a single word on how to undo it, despite the details of how the spell was performed being in one of the journals found in a desk draw.  


So, with the books drawing a blank, attentions turned to the rest of the interconnecting dungeon rooms, and what else there was to be found and snooped though. In short order, draws were rifled though, magical objects and artifacts were poked from a safe distance with a handy poking/walking stick, and the contents of jars were scrutinized, without taking the lids off (Soren had done that exactly once and almost collapsed from the fumes inside.) 

Rayla found her teams weaponry and some of ripped and tatterd clothing stashed in a lock box next to a gloomy cage with what looked to be dulled strands of white hair scatted about inside, partially hidden by a layer of dust. 

Whilst everyone else was trying to brake the lock off of a unfairly well-fortified, and slightly glowing, chest, Callum’s eyes were suddenly drawn to the cells sent into the side of dungeon. They lined a short, but narrow hallway, each door heavily bolted and chained shut with locks designed to be tamper proof.  
The one at the end of the hall, its door was open ever so slightly, and there was a soft light emanating from within.  


Without thinking, Callum pushed the door open, and stepped inside. 

The cell was quite, cold, and barren, save for a low table with an empty, stoppered glass bottle, cloth that covered up something, and a goblet sitting on it, next to a chair with mostly melted down candles on the arms.  
And a mirror.  
A mirror that he could hell just by looking at it was not human made. It was too sleek, elegant, and the runes that ran around the edge of the glass looked to be draconic, but not any draconic he had seen before.  
It was shimmering slightly, and giving off the soft, pail blue light that had originally caught his attention out in the hall.  
Something about that mirror was almost hypnotic, Callum could not keep his eyes off of it. 

He was so distracted by the mirror that he did not even register the knife on the low table, balanced over a bowl with some sort of powder in it, until he put his hand down on it, slicing open his fingers and making him yelp.  
The sudden pain snapped him out of the trance he had been in, and he watched as a little of his shed blood dripped down into the bowl, making the powder fizz and smoke were the blood made contact. 

That was concerning. 

“Callum?!” Rayla was behind him before he knew it, grabbing his cut hand to examine it.  
“oh, what have you done to ya self, dummy?” she huffed at him, refusing to even glance at the mirror, using the fact that she had him by the arm to drag him back out of the cell, pulling the door shut behind them. 

Callum swore to himself that there reflections in the mirror seemed… off.. somehow as they left. 

\- 

Aunt Amaya was debating with Gren to the best way to get into the first of the locked cells when Rayla marched him up to her, showing her his cut hand and informing her of how much of a wally her nephew was, and of the weird mirror.  
Especially the weird mirror.  
The mirror of weirdness that radiated bad vibes so should be left the hell alone. 

After Amaya gave her the ok, Rayla dragged Callum over to the middle of the main ‘chamber’ of the dungeon to get the medical kit off of Soren, and proceeded to snark his ear off ass he cleaned and an bandaged his hand.  
(“honestly, you have know idea where that knife had been!”)  
Callum, to his merit, just sat and pouted, and let her get on with it. 

Then his ears caught the sound of… something. 

He tilted his head to one side, trying to work out where the sound, which sounded like a very faint music box playing.. somewhere nearby. The melody, as muffled as it was, stirred up some memory from when he was small, sitting on his mothers lap in a sunny room, whilst his step dad tried to get pip to sing along to his mother’s old music box.  
The music box that had disappeared after the king’s assassination, believed smashed to pieces in the attack. So why was he hearing it now? 

The moment Rayla let his hand go, he wandered off in the direction of the sound, trying to work out were it was coming from. His search, with the sound of Rayla and Soren following behind him, lead to the back wall of the main chamber, behind the stairs down.  
The wall there was for the most part blank, with the ever present sconces and a couple of creature skulls hanging on decorative plates, detailing species and location, but.. the music sounded like it was coming from right behind the wall. 

Soren gave Rayla a small nudge  
“has he lost his mind?” he asked her quietly  
“I think he lost it a while back. He just an’t noticed yet” came Rayla’s fed up reply.  
“before or after he jumped off a cliff for you?”  
“… shut it soren.”  


A clunk got there attention. Callum had tugged on one of the sconces closest to where the music was emanating from, releasing a hidden latch somewhere in the wall, followed by a section of the wall to swing out.  
Behind this hidden door was yet another chamber.  
The music could be herd clearly now.  
“get Amaya.” Was the only thing that Rayla could vocalise to Soren before she darted forward after Callum, who had trundled into the strange room without a second thought. Soren obliged. 

\- 

There was a sunken bath in the room, full of a thick, dark blue liquid that obscured the bottom. Queen Sarai’s music box played softly from a low table that was pushed up against the back wall, sitting next to an empty plate, goblet, and an open textbook full of what could only be described as arcane gibberish.  
All in Viren’s hand, just like the runes drawn around the rim of the sunken bath, and the diagrams on the walls.  


Rayla squinted at the dark liquid, trying to see what could possibly be in there, whilst behind her Amaya was given Callum a bit of a dressing down for just wandering into a hidden room without telling anyone.  
Yes, she was pleased to see the old, ornate music box that had been in the family for generations, with its little dancing birds and rearing unicorn that twired around on a turntable, but for the love of peace, what hi the door had reactivated and locked him in? or if there was something dangerous in here? Damn it child. Please stop.  
Please. 

\- 

Soren gave the dark liquid a poke with a stick.  
Rayla shot him a look.  
Soren gave her a bemused look back, and poked the liquid again. 

There was something… casting a shadow in the already dark, viscus fluid, something that looked.. person-y in shape. His next poke managed to make contact with the shape, approximately where it’s arm would be proving it to be firm, if a tiny bit squishy. Soren kept poking, despite Rayla’s slowly growing protests.  
And then _someone _stood on something that made a loud sound (a later investigation revealed it to be hunting horn retrofitted to a set of bellows for some reason) , making Rayla, Gren, and Callum all jump, and making Soren tip over, face first straight into the dark liquid. The liquid was not deep- it only came up to his waist when he finally flailed up to the surface, but it was thick, and seemed almost reluctant to let him go, and his frantic attempts to get back up dragged the dark shape back up to the surface.__

__

__Amaya’s mouth dropped in surprise, and Callum made a strangled sound and the site of the body, with his dark dreadlocks and red padded tunic, now floating serenely at the service of the liquid like a lotus .  
_ _

__

__-they burnt his body.- Amaya started, shocked . -he was given a funeral! A proper funeral! What was that mage playing at!?-  
“I know. I was there.” Soren whispered, wide eyed. _ _

__

__Gren waded carefully into the bath, and between the two of them, they pulled the fallen king to the edge of the tub. Harrow looked peaceful, like he was sleeping, with the only signs of the wounds that felled him being a healed over scar, a delicate pink against surprisingly warm dark skin, and some cut marks in his tunic above where his heart was.  
_ _

__

Rayla sat frozen next to a watery eyed Callum, struck mute by the sight. 

Amaya knelt next to her brother in law, softly mowing one of his locs out of his face, frowning at how warm his skin was for being dead for the last two months. on a hunch, she pressed two of her fingers to the side of Harrow’s neck, feeling mutely for any sign of life.  
He had a pulse. He. had. a. _PLUSE _It was faint, yes.__  
It was there.  
And as she watched, the king hesitantly, slowly, started to breathe. 

____

____


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blood warning in this chapter. and death.  
> nothing to graphic.  
> but its there .  
> (spoiler! he gets better.)

The assassin was the epitome of beauty. That was all that harrow could really say. Beautiful and deadly, like a swooping gyrfalcon going in for the kill.  
And Harrow, crippled by his so called best friends very low blow of dark magic flavoured betrayal, was the helpless little mouse, caught in his piercing gaze.  
And with that gaze, came shining talons. 

The blows didn’t hurt, with how numb and sluggish that spell had made him, but the sight of so much bright, almost lurid red blood that flowing out of him, pooling in the floor, dripping of slivery blades, was setting off alarms that his heavy, sluggish body just was not responding to.  
He was faintly aware of the elf, standing over him, while hair shining in the candle light, spitting something about justice. And then there was another dull pain, this time in his neck.  
His mind just.. went calm.  


So calm. Like his brain had just accepted what was happening, and had quit any sort of struggle.  
He was dying. Helpless, slumped against the side of his bed. 

All he could think about was his sons, if they were ok. Please say that they were both ok. He had sworn that He had heard Callum yell for him outside the door just the a moment before. And where there was Callum, there would be Ezren.  
Harrow prayed to whoever was listening, that his sons would be ok. That they would both get to live long and happy lives. And that when Sarai met him in the next world, she would go easy on him. Even if he most probably didn’t deserve it. She had all the right to kick his ass all over the afterlife for what he had done. And she likely would.  
Heh. It was going to be good to see her again.  
King harrow shut his eyes, and the world softly slipped away into a soft, welcoming darkness. 

\- and all was calm. 

\- 

He woke up with a start, to the sound of his wife’s music box, its soft chimes cleaving though the stillness like a sunforged blade though butter. 

His eyes were blurry, his mind blank. But it was dark here, and smelled.. odd. Damp and herbal and weird and wrong in a way that He could not quite place. And his whole body ached. It was painful to breathe, and his heart felt like it was fluttering rather then beating. He thought that braking his hip in the fight with thunder was bad. This. This pain was worse. Harrow screwed his eyes shut, letting out a small wine of pain as he turned his head to one side. 

He opened his eyes again, unable to recognise the chamber he was in, aside from the sight of Viren, the treacherous leach, hurrying over, kicking a cage with something moving inside as he did so. The mage’s voice was muffled to his ears, but it sounded like he was trying to be soothing. Trying. Viren stoked his hair, his cheek, placing a kiss on Harrow’s forehead as he slid his other hand under Harrow’s chin to feel his pulse.  
Harrow was not having it.  
He kept trying to move himself away from Viren, attempting to wiggle off wherever he was laying, away from the warm, but oh so clammy hands that was trying to pull at him, prying at his eyes and mouth. 

No. no, no, no, stop. Stop it! Harrow wanted to yell, to scream, but he could only let out rasping gasps. 

Viren made an annoyed sound, and grabbed something that was out of Harrow’s line of sight, and there was a small, sharp pinprick in one of harrows heavy arms.  
And then he was drifting off again. 

\- 

He was dreaming, he was sure of it.  
The music box sounded so close, yet so far away, but all he could see was murky darkness.  
Was he breathing? He was no longer sure.  
But it was soothing here, like he was wrapped in some all-encompassing, damp weighted blanket.  
And he was still, so terribly sleepy.  
Back down he went. 

\- 

Sometimes he would come around, to the feeling of Viren, eyes black and skin greying, stroking his hair, whilst muttering sweet nothings to him.  
Sometimes he could swear that he could hear Viren’s daughter somewhere close by, singing little ditties to herself as she clattered around with something.  
Sometimes Viren would just hold him close.  
Harrow never stayed awake long enough to ask him questions. 

\- 

The blur of sleep fogged his brain.  
Something was different.  
Why could he smell Amaya’s favoured bergamot soap?  
Why would she be in this dark place?  


Its probably just a dream, he tells himself.. 

\- 

Harrow jolted awake with a start, only to flop back down in sudden, exquisite pain, which immediately informed him that he was very much alive..  
Yep, definitely alive. Unfortunately, being dead probably would not hurt this much.  
His entire spine popped near enough symphony, his head, neck and chest all ached in ways that he never thought they ever could, and that old brake in his hip was radiating pain like the sun radiated light and warmth.  
Speaking of the dang sun… 

Harrow managed to prop himself up on his elbows, looking around his own bedroom in confusion, squinting and blinking in the overly bright midday sunlight that was beaming in through the open windows, along with a pleasant, cooling summer breeze. 

Somewhere nearby, Pip was singing sweetly. 

Glancing around the room, Harrow was half expecting to see or hear Viren somewhere in the room, lurking about, waiting for him to wake up to do.. something.  
But the mage was nowhere to be seen. The only thing that was moving in the room was the curtains, blowing in the warm summer breeze, and a couple of stay petals from the flowering vines that grew around the balcony were twirling in the air like colourful confetti.  
The still calmness was a huge difference to the chaos he was in the middle of last time he could remember clearly. 

Wait… summer? It was mid spring last time he checked. How was it summer?? 

Harrow drew in a deep lung full of air, savouring the light perfume of roses and jasmine and tried to call to the bird, but his voice was cut of sharply by a coughing fit that made him double over sharply, making his ribs and back scream in agony with each dry, heaving cough.  
Harrow wisely decided that laying back down was most probably the best option. 

Thankfully Pip, the ever loyal buddle of birdseeds and feathers, came sailing in trough the open window, alighting on the bedside table next to harrow’s bedside chirping and trilling in happiness. Pip was as happy to see Harrow as harrow was to see Pip.  
“hey old friend” Harrow croaked, eyeing the sun in the sky outside, “how long have I been out?”  
Pip just continued to trill, sounding his birdy happiness for the whole world to hear. 

\- 

“ See.” The rich, deep voice whispered into Viren’s ear. “He’s woken up.”  


Viren kept his eyes glued to the scrying mirror, watching harrow’s every movement. They had changed him into one of his nightshirts, the one that came down to his knees, the one with the decorative embroidery down the front and side panels. He looked so.. soft in it. So touchable. Viren wanted to be next to him, not stuck with a bugged up leg, huddled in the dilatated old sitting room of a abandoned estate in the middle of sodding nowhere, Xadia.  
He was going to change that. He was going to get better. Stronger. And he was going to retake his place by his best friends side, and Xadia was going to pay for everything they had done to him. To them. to humanity as a whole. 

Aarovos glanced up from where he was treating Viren’s leg. The mage’s brooding was getting darker, and slightly worrying if he had to be honest. Claudia was starting to worry about her father as well, for both his mind and his body.  
He would talk to her about him once she was back from her hunting trip. 


End file.
